Within less than an hour on the airplane, I saw exactly what I wanted to see from the air – the beautiful green pyreenes mountains. It’s amazing that France is so small, about the same size as Georgia, and within one hour or two by airplane or even by car, the region is completely different, even the accents! However, in Georgia, when we drive for one hour or even five hours, the accents and the region still look the same! My penpal, Anais, whom I have been writing letters to for two years, and her mom were right near the gate and therefore, it was easy to find them and I even immediately recognized them from the photos that they sent me. Anais and her mom are the nicest and the most lovely people. They have a wonderful mother-daughter relationship like my mom and me, and Anais and I have a lot in common including similar obstacles that we both have gone through! It’s nice to be with a similar family. As soon as arrived, we went straight to Anglet Beach where we got ice cream (mmmm) and took a stroll. There was a lighthouse on the beach that I immediately recognized from my last trip to Bayonne two years ago and even had a photo of it on my video iPod! I took out my iPod and opened up the picture and looked at it, and thought, “Man! It’s so nice to be back in a place that I loved so much and where I had so many great memories!”

I really did enjoy my three weeks vacation in Paris. I have certainly seen more places than many other tourists and even residence of Paris. I have truly learned a lot of facts that I did not know before, in particular in the subject of art and history. Traveling is the best way to learn art and history, and even improving the communication of a foreign language. I did enjoy staying with Christophe’s family too, and I am certainly looking forward to him coming to United States. He will have a huge culture shock since he has never been to United States in his life!